A Sitcom in Charlotte
Anyone who spent more than just a few minutes viewing the made for TV show in Charlotte, NC, last week now knows why “Democrat” or “Democratic” do not appear in this column. Everyone who appeared on the main stage last week obviously took an oath to slant their comments toward fanning the flames of class warfare.
The theme of the show was that the rich enjoy their status on the backs of the middle class and the moochers in the under class. Moreover, those rich people who pay the majority of taxes still are not paying their “fair share.”
A belief that the government is the best judge of how a citizen’s wealth should be distributed is clearly indicated in these remarks. Consider the fact that Mitt Romney‘s charitable contributions in 2010 exceeded his tax bill by more than a million dollars. That was never mentioned last week.
If the philosophy that some are not paying their fair share of taxes prevails, watch for proposals to limit the amount by which any individual may increase his wealth in any year.
Do not believe that will never happen. The precedent is already set. Obamacare moved the government into the board rooms of medical insurance companies, directed what medical conditions had to be covered and how, and directed that only 15% of a company’s premium could be used for administration, including salaries. That is limiting profits.
If that can be done to corporations, why will it not be extended to individuals in the future? What is left over above what the government says you can keep will be collected as a tax. The Supreme Court approved Obamacare on the theory that the penalty imposed on an individual who does not buy medical insurance is a tax. So if the government says up front that the confiscation of excess wealth is a tax, why would court justices disagree?
The actors burnishing their reputations as class warriors last week were reminiscent of The Three Stooges. The stooges would slap stick all over and around any problem? That zigging and zagging was vividly visible anytime a class warrior was asked if he or she were better off now than four years ago.
After much hemming and hawing, the answers generally declined to “just go forward with the same failed policies and you will be better off in another four years.”
The best jig by far, however, was danced by Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois. FOX Newsman Bret Baier asked the senator why “God” and “Jerusalem as the capitol of Israel” were left out of this year’s platform. A simple answer of, “I do not know, because I was not on the Platform Committee,” probably would have moved the session on to other matters. Durbin, however, got testy, never attempted to answer the question, and went round and round with Baier as to why the reporter was trying to trap him.
Not far behind that dance was that of Florida Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Chair of the class warrior national committee. When asked about a report by Washington Examiner columnist Philip Klein that she said that Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren described Republican policies toward Israel as “dangerous” for the Jewish state, she denied ever saying such a thing. She added, “That comment was reported by a conservative newspaper. It’s not surprising that they would deliberately misquote me.”
When Klein subsequently played the recording of his interview with Schultz that showed he had quoted her precisely, her lame comment was that the quote had been taken out of context. That is a quote of the President’s attempt to explain, “You didn’t build that.”
Finally, where are the fact checkers who were all over the Republican National Convention? When will they excoriate the class warriors for claiming that VP nominee Paul Ryan’s budget plan would cost Medicare patients $2,400 a year? That was a proposal several years ago, but it has not been revived or mentioned, except by the class warriors, since before campaigning started last year.
Also, will the slogan “Bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive” be trashed? Much is made about the character of President Obama in ordering the raid on Bin Laden’s compound.
What president or officer would not make that call? Obama’s order to go pales in comparison with General Eisenhower ordering thousands of soldiers into certain death on the beaches of Normandy? It is also weak when considering General Robert E. Lee ordering Pickett’s charge through an open field against Union soldiers on Cemetery Ridge in Gettysburg?
The class warriors did not save General Motors. What was saved was the United Auto Workers. The union would have had to renegotiate their contracts if GM had been allowed to follow the law and go through bankruptcy as other large corporations like Delta and United Air Lines have done. Now the union has a seat on GM’s board of directors. While moving the union up the line, “saving” GM winked at the law and required secured creditors to go to the back of the line.
So here’s the perspective.
There was a funny show in Charleston last week. Unfortunately, the policy wonks who hung on every word from that podium seem not to have put a single logical question in play. They will go to the polls in November still in awe of those clever TelePrompTer readers they saw last week.
enough
